SAFE AS MILK (Ingersoll, ON)

Shepherd’s Pub, 11:30 p.m.

Your after party ticket lets you hop around between all four venues downtown

“I just saw the best band in Canada!” said Tom Wilson in 1993. History suggests that he was wrong. What happened? The usual… girlfriends, infighting, delusions of grandeur, too much Kraft Dinner and Taco Bell. While their friends the Gandharvas went on to produce one of the great Canadian songs of the 90′s, “The First Day of Spring,” Safe As Milk tragically descended into a vicious cycle of adjusted family life.

While they continue to suffer from raging addictions to sleeping in their own beds and watching their kids play sports, their longevity is a by-product of that fateful day when they sat despondent and without a recording contract (remember those? no you don’t) around Doug Breen’s kitchen table in 1995. Planning to end it all, they ultimately concluded; “Why???” Not because Tom Wilson was right, though on some nights he may well have been.

Guitarists Bob and Doug Breen were stuck with each other for eternity as first cousins anyway, and when you might be the best band in Canada, the least you can do for your country is play a few shows a year. Somewhere along the line Rob Blanchette, the guy who co-wrote and played bass on “First Day of Spring,” joined them. So did drummer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Matt Weston (The Dyadics). Arguably, they got even better.

So what does that make them now? The best band in the universe? Certainly one of the best bands that you’ve likely never heard of. Regardless, Safe As Milk love each other dearly and would like to entertain you… and that’s really what it’s all about isn’t it?